Microsoft Details Ribbonised Explorer for Windows 8
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 29th Aug 2011 22:27 UTC
Windows Ah yes, Windows Explorer. One of the oldest parts of Windows, and yet, it's far from perfect. It's hated less than, say, the Finder (but that's no achievement), but most geeks I know aren't particularly fond of it either. For Windows 8, Microsoft is going to make the biggest change ever to Explorer's interface: it's getting the ribbon treatment.
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Going in the Wrong Direction
by organgtool on Mon 29th Aug 2011 22:57 UTC
organgtool
Member since:
2010-02-25

One of the few things I liked while using Windows, especially Explorer, was that it didn't waste a ton of real estate on gimmicks. Microsoft should learn from the popularity of Chrome and realize that filling the screen with more crud is not what users want. The first thing I have to do when using a Windows computer is disable all of the button bars in Explorer or IE.

Microsoft: just because the ribbon worked great in a feature rich application such as Office doesn't mean that we want it apps that don't provide nearly as much functionality. If you want to improve Explorer, add a column view similar to Finder in OSX or Dolphin in Linux.

Reply Score: 9

RE: Going in the Wrong Direction
by Mr. Dee on Tue 30th Aug 2011 01:43 in reply to "Going in the Wrong Direction"
Mr. Dee Member since:
2005-11-13

Sorry, its actually going in the right direction, which is giving back users more power. It can be turned off, give this command a try: CTRL + F1. If you don't like using commands, then you are not a power user, stick with Windows 7. When you think about basic things like moving and copying a file to a location, better customization using QAT, the Ribbon is probably one of the best things that every happened to Explorer in a long while. Remember, you can hide it.

Reply Parent Score: 3

What about us lefties then?
by shotsman on Tue 30th Aug 2011 07:42 in reply to "RE: Going in the Wrong Direction"
shotsman Member since:
2005-07-22

Having to use CTRL/F1 might be fine for Right Handed people. For us lefties (who use the mouse with our left hand) this is a frigging PITA.

So for 10% of the population they have suddenly made it a lot harder to use.

Don't go on about 'you can change this, change that etc'.
It is bad enough trying to use someone else's PC/Laptop. If I went around changing the function keys will nilly the owner of that PC would be rightly peed off.

Don't these idiots who propose this sort of mess ever stop to think about us lefties? Do they heck.

Reply Parent Score: 3

Read more of this thread... >
melkor Member since:
2006-12-16

And if one dislikes the ribbon interface and finds it completely unintuitive? A quick google shows that more people seem to dislike the ribbon than like it. I think that pretty much says it all.

Dave

Reply Parent Score: 4

gnumdk Member since:
2007-02-16

Power user use power shell, not explorer...

Reply Parent Score: 1

Luminair Member since:
2007-03-30

They removed all the crud with XP and Vista, and now they're adding some back in because they made a bunch of mistakes.

The problem I see is not the ribbon, which is a fine and basic concept, but their implementations of it. They seem to have no rules, just shoving shit everywhere. Probably since they have organizational direction of a bus full of schizophrenics, the result is inevitably a clusterfuck.

http://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-filesystemfile.ashx/__key/communityserver... ....what the hell is going on?

Reply Parent Score: 11

Icaria Member since:
2010-06-19

Wish I could up-vote this comment. The ribbon isn't fundamentally new or bad, it's just a bad implementation of a notebook widget: differently sized and shaped widgets packed in all over the place. You could just about have an anxiety attack trying to find something in it.

Reply Parent Score: 4

Bill Shooter of Bul Member since:
2006-07-14

Pedantic Correction: Schizophrenics very rarely have any problem deciding what to do, they're the ones with voices in their heads telling them over and over what needs to be done. The result wouldn't be a clusterf*ck, it would be a wes craven or Oliver Stone film. Its those with multiple personality disorder or Attention deficit disorder that have issues with sticking with a plan.

Reply Parent Score: 2

Laurence Member since:
2007-03-26

One of the few things I liked while using Windows, especially Explorer, was that it didn't waste a ton of real estate on gimmicks. Microsoft should learn from the popularity of Chrome and realize that filling the screen with more crud is not what users want. The first thing I have to do when using a Windows computer is disable all of the button bars in Explorer or IE.

Microsoft: just because the ribbon worked great in a feature rich application such as Office doesn't mean that we want it apps that don't provide nearly as much functionality. If you want to improve Explorer, add a column view similar to Finder in OSX or Dolphin in Linux.

To be honest, I don't even like ribbon in Office.

The nice thing about the menu interface was that if you couldn't remember where something was, you could find it with a textual interface that was (for the most part) logically laid out.

Now I have to scan through dozens of icons just to find something that's picture vaguely represents the task I'm trying to perform. Worse yet, some functions are hidden in menus behind ribbon icons.

The problem with interfaces like the ribbon bar is they expect users to learn the layout. To generate a mental map of where the functions are. Which is fine if all you use in your working life is MS Office. However I regularly switch between MS Office, LibreOffice and dozens of other productivity suites. I don't have the time nor inclination just to learn how to perform the same function I was regularly using 5 years ago.

People keep taking about GUIs and pictorial representations as the cutting edge of user friendliness, but I'm really not convinced. I'm not about to say that we should all be using the command line or anything equally absurd. However icons only work if people can identify with the graphic representation and GUIs are only use friendly so long as the form layouts are logical. Thus far I've found that the ribbon bar doesn't always tick those two boxes.

</rant>

Reply Parent Score: 8

RE: Going in the Wrong Direction
by viton on Tue 30th Aug 2011 14:04 in reply to "Going in the Wrong Direction"
viton Member since:
2005-08-09

filling the screen with more crud is not what users want.
Don't think it is wrong direction.
They just need to ditch the text (optionally)
For example the Amiga DOpus 5 used screen space delicately.
http://system-log.com/wp-content/uploads/directory-opus-5.5-with-am...

Edited 2011-08-30 14:04 UTC

Reply Parent Score: 2